A Study to Ascertain the Growth Situation of the Kumasi Metropolitan Area (KMA): A Remote Sensing Approach

Abstract

Urban sprawl has led to the loss of lots of natural resources such as water bodies, wetlands, agricultural lands, forest, etc which are necessary biodiversities needed to create a balanced environment and ecosystem. As towns and cities expand due to the increase in urban population, enormous pressure is exerted on the surrounding natural resources in order to create space to cater for the increasing urban population. Urban sprawl generally leads to the wasteful development of land, and also poses health and other hazardous threat to people due to its overcrowded characteristic. This has made it essential to understand the phenomenon of urban sprawl, especially with the perspective of a developing country like Ghana. The problem of urban sprawl is known to be an outcome of improper planning, inadequate policies and lack of good governance due to diverse reasons. The inability of the planning mechanism to envisage probable areas of sprawl and its growth is persistent with the lack of appropriate spatial information and indicators. With the need for sustainable development, it is essential to integrate the various factors responsible for dynamic process and establish the complex relationships amongst them. Remote System (RS) techniques applied on remotely sensed images and topographic data were carried out to assess the urban growth of the Kumasi Metropolitan Area (KMA) of the Ashanti region of Ghana. Semi-structured questionnaires were also administered to carry out a socioeconomic survey to ascertain its influence on the expansion of the KMA. Spatial analysis and statistical analysis revealed the pattern and growth of the urban area from 1974 to 2007. The change in urban growth of the KMA was discovered to be three times more than the change in population growth. The reasons for uncontrolled development were also revealed by the socioeconomic survey. The results suggested that the KMA is sprawled. The sprawl is due to the increasing population growth, unequal income (poverty), and noncompliance to laid down developmental plans within the KMA.